Toyota scales back electric car plans

Toyota has scaled back production of its eQ electric car, casting fresh doubt over the future viability of full-electric vehicles.

The Japanese manufacturer had planned to sell thousands of units of the battery-powered version of its iQ city car worldwide but now plans a very limited production run of only 100 cars that will be destined for North America and Japan.

Electric cars - pros and cons

The reasons Toyota cites for this change of tack won't go unnoticed by rival manufacturers who continue to plough significant resources into their electric vehicle ranges. Toyota says that it misread the market and that battery technology is not yet at a stage where it can meet customer demands. Hence the pull back from plans to sell the electric iQ on a global scale.

"The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge," said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's vice chairman and the engineer in charge of vehicle development.

Electric cars you can buy now

Toyota's move comes at a time when rival manufacturers are continuing to push full-electric vehicle technology. Nissan has sold 38,000 LEAF electric cars since the vehicle was launched in 2010 and remains confident that by 2020 one tenth of all cars sold will be electric.

Toyota, on the other hand, is retreating into the technology it has pioneered from the outset of the green car boom. Its petrol/electric hybrid cars are a cornerstone of its model range today and the firm has announced plans to increase the number of hybrids in its global line-up to 21 by 2015.

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